We had a wonderful family holiday last month at Port Dickson with my parents, sister and brother-in-law.

It was the first time we went on a long-distance drive since we had baby Caleb.

It was a nice to get a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves away from the stresses of daily life. I enjoyed the chance to spend time with my family, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.

We stayed at Avillion Admiral Cove again. Daryl was not even born last time, so it was nice to go back.

This time we managed to stay in the new Vista wing, which was still under construction the last time we were there.

The rooms had a different theme compared to the old wing. It felt like some sort of garden / victorian theme.

I didn’t adjust the white balance on the previous photo so you could see the room in actual light.

There was a daybed in the room so we had extra space for the kids to sleep.

I always have this bad habit of taking photos of hotel bathrooms. I’ve been doing this since I was young. I guess I’m always fascinated by the luxury, something I could never afford to have in my own home.

I liked the experience of rain shower, but it was quite difficult to bathe the kids because they were terrified at first because we couldn’t prevent water dripping on their faces.

We also had to bring a basin to bathe Caleb.

We arrived in Port Dickson on the day after Christmas, and the traffic was horrible. We were stuck half-an-hour at a 5km stretch from PD hospital to Teluk Kemang.

We had our first lunch at Weng Yin seafood, which we tried last time. Last time I remember we ordered just some fried rice and a vegetable dish which was okay. This time we ordered a few Chinese dishes and we were quite disappointed at the taste and rather costly price.

After another round of traffic jam we checked in to the hotel and rested.

I saw this insect that looks like a stick. I had no idea what it’s called but I found it fascinating. Its feet could stick to a plastic sign!

Sadly I later found someone had smashed the insect.

For dinner we paid another visit to Kemang Seafood and it was much better compared to lunch, in terms of taste, portion size and pricing. We arrived around 7 but by 7:30 the place was packed.

We ordered crab, fried squid, prawns and there were people hovering around waiting for our table when I was eating my crab. I need to take my sweet time because it’s so hard to extract the crab meat.

My sister said those people drooled each time I dipped my fried mantou in the sweet and sour crab sauce hehe.

We went to bed early because we were tired from all the travelling and traffic jams.

This is a sunset photo I took with my phone.

The next morning we brought the kids to the beach after breakfast at the hotel. Just a quick note about the breakfast. It was the typical hotel buffet breakfast. Nothing too fancy. The normal Malaysian and Western choices, and we had to go eat before 8am to avoid the crowd.

It was Daryl’s first encounter with the sea, safe in yeh yeh‘s arms.

We borrowed a sand toys set from Rachel’s cousins and they proceeded to play with the sand. If you look back at the very first photo in this blog post, you will see Rachel found a coin.

I was so excited because she found it within seconds of digging. “Rachel! Rachel! You found money!”

Rachel: “No la, cannot take”. Then she threw the coin away.

I went to retrieve it, “No no, this is TREASURE!”

Rachel: “No, cannot simply take”. Throw away again.

Sigh.

Daryl concentrated really hard trying to scoop sand in the bucket.

Rachel was enjoying herself at the beach and at the swimming pool after that.

A nice family photo. Poor baby Caleb stayed indoors most of the time.

For our second dinner at Port Dickson, we hunted down the new McDonalds that just opened in PD.

There’s this whole new commercial area that opened on a piece of reclaimed land near the Store Oceanic Mall in PD. There’s a seafood restaurant already opened, and another Chinese restaurant being constructed.

It was predictably packed but we managed to find a table upstairs. It was nice because this McDonalds had a sea view and you could feel the sea breeze. There were a lot of flies too, so they should probably install some bug zappers.

We spent the night playing Risk. I last played the game when I was 14 and I’ve forgotten everything. It is such an interesting game!

On our last day, we spent some time taking photos. Rachel and Caleb.

Rachel and Daryl on some sampan display.

We visited the little petting zoo at the hotel. There was a rabbit, some tortoises and some hamsters.

Daryl kept touching the rabbits and called it a “cat meow”. Rachel kept screaming each time the rabbit came near.

A final photo before checking out.

We paid less than RM400 for two nights stay. Not bad considering it was super peak room rates (public holiday plus school holiday).

I hope we can go for another holiday at the end of this year, but definitely during off-peak season.

As at November, Caleb is three months old.

To record down his physical development, he can flip over from his back and vice versa. He can raise his head up to look around.

His arms and legs are gaining strength. He doesn’t have the co-ordination to grasp items, but he can reflexively grasp our shirt.

He has grown much taller and heavier. In terms of body size, he’s wearing the same clothes Daryl used to wear when he was six months old. If Caleb continues growing at this rate, he will be bigger than Daryl!

Caleb doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on his back. Within seconds he will turn over, so we can’t leave him alone on the bed anymore. He might roll off the bed!

He smiles when he sees Rachel or Daryl around. I think Caleb enjoys being the centre of attention.

Caleb also likes to suck his thumb and all his fingers.

In terms of mental development, I don’t know how to describe it but I can see he is sentient. You know, like there’s an intelligent being looking back at you.

When babies are born, they don’t do much except cry and sleep. Even when looking at you, you can’t really tell if they know they are looking at you. It’s like looking at a puppy.

When they reach a certain age, they start observing the world. They have memory and remembrance. Now Caleb is at that stage. He’s starting to observe me when I look at him.

And I know that he knows who I am.

So our relationship as father and son moves to another level. Previously he may remember my voice or my scent, but now I am starting to register in his brain as daddy.

It’s the same with his brother and sister. They’re starting to play with him, and he can recognize who they are.

Photo of Caleb opening his eyes, observing.

He’s losing all his fine newborn hair.

In terms of personality, he seems to be quite cheerful. He can be quite talkative.

He is relatively easy to take care of. He’s happy if you keep him fed and changed.

Thank God his health is good. He hardly ever gets sick compared to Daryl.

His diet is still 100% breast milk. He’s putting on weight and getting chubby. And the chubbier he gets, the more he looks like Daryl.

In the next few weeks we’re just hoping for him to continue getting stronger and avoid getting sick.

Poey Chin keeps hoping he will stay a baby and I keep hoping he grows up a bit quicker haha.

Our failed attempt at a family photo, because Rachel was making funny faces.

Caleb always has this surprised look.

She’s three and-a-half years old, but she seems to behave older than that. Maybe she mixes with older kids at her daycare, but the way she speaks seems to be beyond her years.

She has grown taller now, and she’s lost her baby chubbiness.

She loves to dress up, do up her hair and put on perfume.

Rachel has mastered her ABCs. Now she’s learning phonic sounds and I’m teaching her to read.

She likes to do colouring and writing.

She’s too young to really know how to write. She can trace the words but take away the guide and she can’t remember how to write.

There are a lot of useful YouTube videos that are excellent resources to teach Rachel how to read.

Poey Chin is a huge influence on Rachel. Rachel follows everything she does, from the way she walks, to the way she moves and even the way she talks.

She always wants to play “mother” to Caleb, but we are still watchful.

Sometimes my mother will occupy Rachel’s attention with some computer games.

Rachel loves playing this memory game, which I think is useful for her mental development.

She loves doing jigsaw puzzles too.

I still have my frustrating moments with Rachel. You would expect her to grow out of her “baby” stage but sometimes she will be so unreasonable and be worse than her baby brothers.

She really upsets me sometimes… she can be so stubborn.

But I still love her so much, even if I’m strict with her. She can be so sweet and adorable.

She is starting to understand things if we take the time to explain to her the reasons.

I’m really happy that she stopped making a fuss before going to daycare. It’s a normal part of her daily routine now.

In the next few months I hope she can continue learning, and she will learn to be more understanding and obedient.

He’s one and-a-half years old, and has mastered walking and running. He is starting to climb up on our dining chairs.

He and Rachel run around the house screaming (driving me mad), but he’s still a bit clumsy on his feet.

Daryl is so active now that it’s tiring to keep up with him.

He insists on holding a spoon during mealtimes, with comical results.

In terms of speech, he can pretty much imitate the words we say, but in baby talk. He can communicate by pointing around and using some words.

He can sing along to his favourite songs, but he only knows the last word of each line (e.g. twinkle twinkle little STAR, how i wonder what you ARE).

Every time we go out, he will repeat the words Nut Nut and Ant Ants! Funny how he can still remember that.

He is starting to get a sense of humour. He can laugh at silly jokes, especially while playing with Rachel.

In terms of social development he’s quite shy, but he will gladly chat with any kakak he sees.

His teeth have all developed, with the exception of the molars beside his incisors.

We estimate he weighs the same as Rachel now.

We are starting to read books to him. He can recognize pictures like duck and cat but his attention span is pretty short, can’t sit more than 5 minutes.

He can sit longer when watching videos. We usually play him some Barney DVDs or some nursery rhymes on YouTube.

He is starting to become very demanding. One time we were at a quiet Japanese restaurant and we were so embarassed because he kept screaming.

He screamed because he wanted to drink my green tea and eat my rice. I was feeding him but he wouldn’t wait for me to cut the food in smaller portions.

A little preview of the coming terrible twos I suppose.

In the next few months I’m hoping that he can get more stable on his feet, then we won’t have to worry about him falling down.

I know he’s going to keep testing his boundaries but I hope we will be able to deal with it better.

I don’t have many photos of myself as a baby, so you might have seen them before.

I’ve got this photo of my mom carrying me while I was a baby.

32 years later…

I could stare at those photos all day.

Mummy doesn’t look like she has aged at all.

I wonder if my digital photos can survive decades until the children have their own kids.

I imagine they would be comparing photos of themselves with their kids too.

It’s just so funny and naughty at the same time haha.

We were trying to take a photo together, and I could see Caleb’s expression reflected on the camera lens. So I tried copying him.

But revealed the secret that I’ve gained weight though… so shy.

Attempt number 2, pouting look:

Daddy and Caleb smiling at each other.

If everything goes according to plan, I will take a day off work today to take Poey Chin for a day away from all the stress at home.

She deserves a break. At first I suggested a visit to the spa but we don’t really have a lot of time.

So probably just a movie. Otherwise we could end up browsing at the baby section of Jusco again.

Managed to take some photos to share with you all this week. Well, actually Poey Chin took some of these photos. Thanks to her, we managed to record this moment.

Caleb can now put his head up!

When we hold him in sitting position his neck is strong enough to keep his head upright (instead of flopping forward or backward).

Looking in front and still a bit cross-eyed.

One effect of his moving his head, is he’s starting to move around in his crib too. Now he can turn up to 45 degrees and can even push himself backward off his pillow.

I love this photo of him sleeping. So peaceful.

He is getting chatty. He will make cooing sounds when we talk to him.

He is also smiling a lot. Here are some photos of his sweet smile.

Would you believe I took this photo with my yellow bedroom light? Finally discovered I could adjust white balance to remove the yellow cast hehe.

Big smile from Caleb. Translated from Chinese phrase, “smile until can see the gums”.

There are more photos scheduled for this week so stay tuned!

Since it’s the last day of October, also want to mention that I’m so happy. For some strange reason, my October AdSense earnings were quite high compared to normal.

Not that it’s a lot of money involved. Maybe I can order a few cups of teh tarik… but I’m just happy for the unexpected bonus.

Baby Caleb is pretty much the same since my blog post about him last week.

I don’t know why, but he has been quite cranky the past week. Maybe it’s the weather? Maybe he’s unwell? I have no idea.

That’s one thing about parenthood… even on your third child, you can still be lost sometimes.

Caleb in the morning, before he’s waken up.

If you ever wondered why I have so many pictures of sleeping babies on this blog, there’s a simple explanation.

Sleeping babies don’t move, which gives me a lot of time to setup the lighting, compose the shot, and attempt shooting with the manual focus.

Having said that, I still manage to produce out-of-focus shots or shots with flare. It’s rather depressing and frustrating.

Another photo of baby Caleb sleeping.

He has grown taller, but he is still tiny. Both his feet put together are still smaller than a RM50 note.

Rachel is getting chattier. She is constantly learning and imitating everyone around her.

One day I’ll try to get a video of her pretending to talk on the phone. She can carry a five minute conversation, mostly imitating Poey Chin or my dad.

We finally got her to stop drinking from a bottle. Our method was simple, we just stopped buying new bottles for her. When her bottles wore out or became too grimy, that was it. No more bottles.

Now she takes milk from a cup and a straw.

I feel the birth of baby Caleb has motivated her to grow up a little. She always wants to be the big sister, but sometimes she can be over-enthusiastic so we’re still careful.

There are still moments of conflict between us. She is so stubborn and I’m so impatient, especially when she wants to do things at the wrong time. Not a good combination.

Okay maybe stubborn is not a good word. She’s very determined.

But she’s learning very quickly. Both good and bad, so are more careful what we say around her.

She’s really into Hi-Five now.

Daryl is still his jolly self.

He is so gentle with Caleb it’s amazing. Caleb is always happy to see Daryl so I think the two boys will get along really well.

He’s starting to pick up new words. Still baby talk, but his vocabulary is expanding. He’s starting to sing along to his favourite songs.

All the teeth at his upper jaw have developed, and the teeth from his lower jaw are already peeking out.

He’s at a hyperactive stage… walking all around the condo and touching everything so he tires everyone out.

I wish I could take better photos of him but he doesn’t stop moving.

That’s all for this update!

We’re all adjusted and cosy with each other now. Surprisingly, things seem to be quite easy.

I remember with Rachel, I would panic when she cried. With Caleb I would hardly break a sweat.

We’ve even managed to go out for meals as a family a few times.

Baby Caleb looks quite different from the last time you saw him. He’s growing so fast.

See how chubby he’s become?

It’s so amazing to hold him. It’s like we’ve gone back in time and we are taking care of Daryl all over again.

The kids are growing so fast. Rachel is just three years old but she seems so grown up now.

Daryl is no longer our baby. He’s so active and learning so fast.

I just wish Caleb could stay a baby forever.

Caleb having a timeless morning nap.

Caleb is starting to recognize everyone. He would smile and try to talk to me. He’s so sweet.

We also had the chance to spend some quality time with Caleb when the two older kids were quarantined away at my parents home.

I just love how Caleb burps so easily compared to his older siblings. Maybe we’ve perfected our burping kung fu haha.

Cute chubby Daryl, so adorable and lovable. He walks everywhere and can be so manja sometimes.

He is imitating everything Rachel does. He will try to dance, run around, scream and even trying to sit on the potty like her.

At this stage he can’t sit still and sometimes it looks like he’s starting to test his boundaries.

He is growing so quickly. Just last month we bought him a pair of shoes, and recently we had to buy him another pair.

His incisors are starting to grow out, and he’s started chewing on things around the house again. Here he’s chewing on his baby chair.

Daryl and Caleb taking a nap.

It’s quite difficult to predict how the both of them will get along. At this moment Daryl still treats Caleb like a toy.

He will go “ti ti” *poke Caleb’s tummy*, “ti ti” *poke Caleb’s hand*

Caleb will just lie still, looking a little puzzled with that perpetual frown, listening to our voices. I don’t think his eyesight is good enough to see us properly yet.

Oh oh, Caleb woke up. I was trying to move them closer together to capture both their faces in focus, but woke Caleb up instead.

Next photo with Daryl in focus. I look at Daryl now and he’s starting to grow out of his baby stage and enter his toddler stage. That time seemed to pass so quickly and I feel a bit of sadness and regret.

Never mind, I still have baby Caleb to fill that gap.

I don’t really have any idea how it will be like when they get older.

I just hope the two of them will remain our little angels forever.

The confinement auntie is leaving in a few days. Our ‘honeymoon’ period is over, and we will be trying to juggle all three of the kids by ourselves.

P/S: Is it just me, or does Caleb look like he’s balding? *sob sob*

Here’s even more photos of baby Caleb taken last weekend, when he was about three weeks old.

Once again it’s baby photo season here at my blog haha.

For a change, I switched back to my kit lens to try and get some different perspectives.

A very cute photo of him sleeping on Poey Chin’s arm.

When the two older kids are out of the house, we let him sleep on a mattress in the living room.

I got this photo of Caleb looking like he’s smiling in his dreams.

He’s grown taller and heavier, my (unprofessional) estimate is he’s gained 20% in size.

In the next photo you can see how small he is. Not even as big as one of our pillows.

Rachel is starting to act up. I don’t know why she’s waking up in the middle of the night asking for milk again. It was so hard to get her off the habit last time.

I’m so tired because when she whines, I get upset. And after that I find it so difficult to fall asleep.

Daryl is enjoying his new found freedom and mobility on his feet. He wants to walk everywhere, and the scary part is he has no concept of danger. So we’re always watchful.

I’m playing with the idea of upgrading to one of the newer Nikon bodies, especially those that have video recording function.

I also heard from my colleague that the newer models have better image sensors that work better in low light and indoors.

But now is not the right time to spend more money, so it will only remain as an idea.

I’ll learn to make full use of what I have.

It’s very strange, each time I look at his photographs, he looks like Daryl. But when you actually look at him, he’s quite different.

One thing for sure, he has Daryl’s lips but his chin is ‘sharper’, and his face is not as ’round’.

Photo of his tiny feet. I wonder what exciting places these feet will bring him to. Will you follow daddy’s footsteps?

All my shifting around and camera shutter clicks woke him up from his nap.

Look between his eyes and you will see wrinkles, like he’s been frowning too much.

Wide awake now. What are you doing daddy? Why are you putting that scary lens so close to me?

He always has this look like he’s worried about something.

Caleb accidentally made a funny face with Rachel’s monkey.

Until today I’ve not had much ‘alone time’ with Caleb. It’s always the two older kids getting my attention, or I have to distract them so Poey Chin can feed Caleb.

Most days I come home from work and Caleb is already asleep. I guess I have to take effort to spend more time with him.

I’m not certain if he even knows I’m his daddy.

I removed his mittens to try and photograph his tiny hands but he started getting fidgety.

Pardon me if I take too many photos of his hair, because it’s so special to us. And we want to look back at these photos later to remember.

Mummy!!!! Daddy keep disturbing my sleep!!

I hope I’ll be able to take more photos this weekend.

P/S: I’m glad I installed the related post thumbnails on my blog. I just love how I can instantly compare photos of all my 3 kids. But the bad thing is, this blog seems to be turning into a baby blog!

I have to tell you that it’s so hard to take photos because:

a) I’m not very skilled at photography, so I already have trouble getting a clear, in-focus photo.
b) Kids won’t co-operate by staying still or strike a pose for you.
c) Try to take photos of two kids together and the difficulty increases exponentially.

Let’s start off with a photo of Daryl boy. I mentioned a few weeks ago about his hair. You can see his hair all black and grown longer now. Of course, baby Caleb had to be born with much more darker and longer hair in comparison.

I put a bear to try and get the light and camera setup right before placing the kids there, but naturally they can’t wait and just barged in.

Daryl remains so cheerful. He can smile from the moment he wakes up until he goes to sleep. Just looking at him will make you smile because he’s so cute.

Okay I just want to mention one thing about the shirt he was wearing. Yes, he’s wearing one of Rachel’s old shirts (which had a rather feminine design). That’s my fault for trying to re-use clothes.

This is Rachel’s monkey. Rachel says this is her 3rd brother. In the background you can see Daryl climbing on the bed to get to monkey.

Daryl has gotten so chubby nowadays. He’s just eating all the time.

He can now say a few more words, like “walk walk” and “ti ti”, and can point to various parts of his body. He can bathe in the shower now (no need baby tub).

Here I took a photo of him sitting on his baby chair watching videos on my computer.

In the next photo we have Daryl and Rachel together. I could not get them both to look at the camera at the same time.

Poey Chin was trying to distract Daryl off camera and he got a bit too distracted. See how playful and cheeky he is.

We’re not so careful about the two of them being together now. Daryl isn’t so fragile now and Rachel has learned to be more careful.

Another shot of Rachel and Daryl, this time with Rachel looking at the camera.

You can see Rachel has grown out of her toddler years. She is so chatty and mischievous all the time. She demands a lot but I realize she’s just asking for our love and attention.

I love this photo. She’s was trying to make a funny face, and then she made herself laugh so the camera captured this beautiful smile.

Funny story. A couple of nights ago she was asking for milk before it was time, and I tried to distract her by browsing YouTube for kid videos.

I saw a Justin Bieber video and clicked. When she saw him she stopped whining.

She didn’t say a word and kept staring.

Me: “Rachel you like this song?”

Rachel: “Mmm” (yes)

Me: “You like this ko-ko?”

Rachel: “Mmm”

Me: “He handsome or not?”

Rachel: “Mmm”

Song finishes a few minutes later.

Me: “You want to hear one more time?”

Rachel: “Mmm”

Few minutes later…

Rachel: “Baby baby baby OHH… baby baby baby OHH… baby baby baby… ”

Poey Chin: “Adino Chang! What have you done!?”

The whole of last week was crazy busy at work and at home.

After he came home from hospital he spent a lot of time sleeping, but as the days went on, he woke up more frequently to cry for milk.

Now he’s feeding every 1 to 1.5 hours.

I took this photo to show you how skinny he is. Not to worry though, at the rate he’s feeding he will be chubby in no time at all.

Side profile. He’s got my ears and eyes.

He’s wearing Daryl’s baby clothes, so he reminds me of Daryl.

Frowny frowny.

From what we’ve observed, he’s quite melancholic. Poey Chin says he’s inherited moodiness from me.

I hope we’re wrong, because he’ll be so serious and moody all the time.

We’re so thankful that his jaundice was not as bad as Rachel and Daryl. Both of them had to be hospitalized for phototherapy but Caleb was fine.

We were so relieved. It’s quite sad to see them drawing blood from your baby and having to leave him in hospital. Honestly I was also relieved that we could avoid another round of hospital bills.

Poey Chin is recovering very quickly. She’s had her dressing removed and doctor said everything is fine.

Caleb at one day old.

When he was first born, I saw that he resembled Rachel. He just wasn’t as “round” as Daryl (see photo below). But at certain angles, he looks just like Daryl. Photo where Caleb opens his eyes.

The conclusion is, he doesn’t look like either Rachel or Daryl. He has elements of both but he is unique and special.

Even his blood group is special, he’s O positive while the rest of us have “Be Positive” blood group.

There are a few things we’ve seen that are different. Most obvious is his hair… so much dark hair! The colour is darker. Both Rachel and Daryl have light brown hair which makes them look bald.

Second thing is he can last a long time between feeds. Both Rachel and Daryl needed to be fed every two hours, Caleb can wait until four hours.

I guess that won’t last, because the first few days of a baby’s life is spent sleeping. He’ll probably demand more milk as the days go on.

Talking about milk, he managed to latch on to drink milk from the first attempt. Rachel refused to latch on (because she was just too impatient when there wasn’t enough milk), and Daryl had to try for a while before he got the hang of it.

He’s so, so tiny wrapped in a bundle. He’s the biggest sized of the 3 siblings at 3.06 kg. During the last ultrasound it was estimated that he was at 3.4 kg weight, giving us a shock!

Confession: both Poey Chin and myself have accidentally called him Daryl boy. I did it several times and she has done it one time.

It’s just a slip of the tongue, so I’ve resorted to calling him baby Caleb instead of Caleb boy.

Poey Chin is recovering nicely. The first day she was vomiting a lot and couldn’t keep any water down until about 9pm. She was so thirsty and I was so worried.

The next morning she started to walk outside after removing her saline drip. and we went to the nursery to see Caleb.

Posing with Caleb outside the nursery.

First father and son photo.

We’re all home now. Rachel has accepted Caleb and is pretty eager to be all motherly. At first she was afraid to touch him, but we let her stroke him and kiss him and now she’s okay.

We still can’t tell how Daryl feels. He’s mostly curious, wanting to touch Caleb but when we take him out of the room, Daryl seems to forget all about Caleb.

Both the older kids have been acting up today. I think they’re just demanding the attention and security, so we are patient with them for now. After all they haven’t seem us at home for the past two nights.

Total bill: RM9,100 for elective c-sec and BTL, two nights stay at hospital plus nursery fees.

We went up to the OT in the afternoon and baby Caleb was born at 2:38pm, weighing 3.06kg and had a height of 49.5cm.

Click the photo for larger view.

The first thing he did when he came into this world was cry softly. Rachel took a while to cry and Daryl had to be cleared using suction before he cried.

Compared to his sister and brother, he seems smaller. Maybe we’re used to the size of the older kids haha.

Right now I’m still in the hospital with Poey Chin. I’ll be staying with her for 3 days to help her if she needs anything.

This morning I had a moment when I panicked cos I can’t remember how to care for baby. But I’m sure it will all come back to me.

Stay tuned for more photos at my blog. You’ll see them here first. Blog alw
ays comes first. Social sites later.

Finally he is able to stand on his own two feet. One more step towards independence.

It comes at a good time too, because baby Caleb will be born in a couple of days.

Poey Chin joked that he wants to get our attention so he’s doing some new tricks haha.

I’ve captured a video of him walking, mashed with a video showing when he stood up for the first time a few months back.

Click here if you can’t see the video embedded below.

See his toothy grin.

A cute T-Shirt. He and Caleb are so blessed to have so many clothes handed down from their cousins.

From this angle you can see he’s quite grown up. Almost out of the baby stage and entering his toddler years.

He won’t stop eating. Nothing can stop him, not even if he only has four teeth.

Daryl boy laughing. Probably after doing something naughty like throwing all his food, plates and water bottle on the floor.

I know I know, I always take over-exposed photos. But this is one of the few places in my home with a) sufficient light and b) a place to distract them to stop them moving around.

When we took these photos, he just had a haircut so he looks quite bald. Poey Chin says in this photo he looks like me.

Daryl looks like he was deep in thought. Probably planning his next meal.

Some updates on his development. His legs are strong enough for him to walk, and he can walk quite far if we hold his hand. But he is not used to it so when we let go he just resumes crawling.

He is starting to communicate by pointing, nodding and shaking his head. He can make gestures to say he is scared. He can follow some simple actions when dancing. He can play some toys correctly.

He can point to his nose, ears, eyes and tummy.

He loves playing with phones and pretends to call me at work. My dad likes taking him for walks and he loves it.

He can say “chee chut” (lizard) and “dark dark”. I have taught him to bark like a puppy, but he says it like “rar rar”.

His hair is really starting to get thicker and longer, maybe in the next round of photos you can see him with more hair.

One major development is he finally stopped sleeping in his baby crib (which is now ready for baby Caleb). One day he actually climbed out of the crib to our queen sized bed (next to it) and that was the last time he could sleep in there.

Finally I just want to mention that in the past few nights he’s been waking up in the middle of the night again. Sigh. Don’t know if he’s insecure about baby Caleb or it’s just a phase all babies go through, but I think its the latter.

P/S: Shortly after I uploaded these photos to my blog, my hard disk died taking all our documents and photos from the past 1 or 2 years with it. Sigh… all of Daryl’s photos gone.

This is actually a test post, trying to blog using my phone

As a father, I have mixed feelings about the impending arrival of our third child.

First of all I’m excited and happy to meet him. Whenever I try to imagine how he will look like, I always have the picture of baby Daryl in my mind. I suppose they would both look alike, but you never know.

I can’t wait for Rachel and Daryl to meet their new sibling. It’s like that feeling you get when you have an iPhone and an iMac and you can’t wait for them to meet your new iPad and see how they interact with each other.

I can tell Rachel is excited and behaving all motherly, but Daryl is quite oblivious and doesn’t understand even when we try to explain to him.

I’m feeling worried about the delivery process. There is always a risk but I’m not going to think too much about that.

In the past few months I’ve tried to prepare financially for the huge expenses that I will have to fork out next month. First, I sold off some shares to get some cash. It’s no big sacrifice, the company looked promising few years back but nowadays I have no idea what the management is doing, because revenue has been falling steadily in the past few quarters.

I made a profit of around RM3000 compared to the time I bought it in 2009, so I’m happy because it can cover almost half of the expected hospital bill. But RM3000 is not a lot when I take into consideration that I’m losing a  dividend generating asset.

Anyway that’s over. But talking about huge expenses, besides the hospital bills there will be RM3200 for confinement aunty. Then there are the followup checkups. If baby Caleb has jaundice like Rachel and Daryl, he will have to spend a night at hospital (minimum RM700).

A couple of months later, we have to pay another baby sitter fee.

If I’ve not been so stingy and spendthrift when I was younger, we would be living on the streets by now.

So the countdown begins.

Four weeks before it all begins again.

The 2 hour sleep shifts. Milk. Vomit. Pumps. Diapers. Crying.

Help!